Famous Bloggers

How To Blog and Start a Business

Home » The Famous Blog » Tweet Like A SuperStar!

Tweet Like A SuperStar!

- by

How to Tweet

Microblogging with twitter is easy, but before you saddle up with the twitterati, I have put together a collection of tips for you! Remember at all times that Twitter is a two-way relationship: I try to reply to at least a few messages each day. If my followers can find a few seconds for me, I can find a few seconds for them.

The first thing that Twitter users look for is valuable information. Post something recent that would boost up the urgency. Increase your influence by posting useful content. If you post something useful, you can be sure other people to Retweet. The rest is simple – the more people retweet it, the more people will see your name. This will allow a lot of people to see your name and you will indirectly get more followers.

TWEET, don’t POLLUTE!

Twitter is a powerful communications medium, but it becomes useless if we just send out Tweets advertising useless information and ridiculous links. People will not look for our Tweets if they know that every one is just another ad. A handful of tweeters are notorious for tweeting the same adverts over and over again. They get around twitter’s restrictions by slightly changing wording and URLS. Remember: people are following YOU because they’re interested in YOU. Let followers know when something of note is coming up!

Pick out a Great “HAT”

Choose the very best twitter name / handle /hat that you can possibly come up with! It will become part of your customized Twitter URL such as twitter.com/yoursite or twitter.com/yourtopic. Doing this creates a static address for future search indexing, which also helps usability for other cross-channel promotions (like showing off your blog). Keep your twitter ID short and sweet so it’ll be easily tweetable and re-tweetable!

Pimp your BIO

Optimize your Twitter Bio so it includes the most important, mission-critical phrases for you and your blog or website. Take advantage of all 160 characters! (They give you 20 more characters than a normal tweet.) Your bio is consistently indexed so its contents are what provide your Twitter page with its core relevance.

Pollinate!

Twitter has proven to be a significant traffic driver for bloggers and others using the space to share links. If you do share links, use one of the many URL shorteners available (TinyURL and Bit.lybit.ly are two common shorteners). I try whenever possible to use the Bit.ly, as it tracks click-throughs for the specific links you share on the platform. Bit.ly even has the power to track links in aggregate. For example, if multiple Bit.ly URLs were created and shared by separate users, all leading back to the same URL, the service can track and report click-throughs for all of them in aggregate. Bit.ly also tracks clicks over time, so you can see when people are clicking your links most.

Brainstorm up more ways to build the link reputation of your twitter social web address. Integrate your Twitter URL into your blog whenever possible (check my sidebar)! You could also integrate your Twitter URL within your site’s header or footer, helping drive your Twitter URL up in the search engines.

Title your Tweets with Care

[The first characters of your tweet may have the most impact on its future SEO value.]

Wherever possible, start your tweet with a primary keyword phrase to theme each message. Take advantage of any “active lingo” or buzz words as this will enable you to capitalize on timely searches on those terms. The “lead-in” of each tweet is important for SEO as it will determine what appears in the tweet’s title tag when it shows up as a search result on Google. Approximately 42 characters are factored into each tweet’s title tag, including the account name, as well as the initial characters of each tweet. Keep in mind that your full tweet and all its characters are still being indexed by major engines!

Add a Retweet or “Tweet this” Button to your Blog posts

I see this a lot today. It’s probably more popular than the old “trackback” feature was back in ’05! This allows readers to share your articles through retweets!

Avoid “TWEETASTROPHE” ::: Optimize Retweetabilitly

Make sure your tweet’s character limits allow for optimal “retweetability” If you want a message to proliferate on Twitter, keep it under 120 characters, counting spaces so that your followers can easily add RT @YourHandle in front of the tweet.

COMMAND ATTENTION (via #hashtags, words and phrases)

99% of the time whenever I post a new entry on my blog, I tweet it with the word “BLOG!” in front. Sometimes I make use of #hashatgs to call attention to a particular post or to classify or otherwise identify it. Some tweeters like to place brackets “[]” around keywords. Brackets make your tweet stand out and allow others to find your tweet and quickly determine whether it’s something they may be interested in. And, while thinking about BLOGS:

Time your Tweets

There’s a bit of disagreement over what days or hours of the day are best. The digital world is 24/7. For me, the optimal times are between 7 and 10 – that’s PM or AM. Remember, when it’s 7am in New York, it’s 7pm (or close to it) on the other side of the world. Tweet at times when the most number of people on the planet are likely to be awake.

Image credit: tweet

Twitter Dummy Guide

About

Dave Lucas (born October 29) is an American broadcast journalist, TV presenter news anchor and talk show host. Dave was born and raised in Upstate New York on a diet of music, Bill Cosby and The Smothers Brothers. Dave is best known for the 1999 series of worldwide internet radio broadcasts surrounding the Jon Benet Ramsey murder case. He has also been interviewed on BBC Radio 1 concerning his blog.

Reader Interactions

Related Posts

{ 23 Responses }

  1. Mark says:
    Interesting point about the 120 characters, Dave. I have consistently broken that rule. I always typed out 140+ like a goon. I never thought of it in terms of "retweets". Great advice and great article. Mark
  2. Michele says:
    Hi Dave, Had to make sure my Twitter bio was pimping...lol. I think it's ok for the moment. ;-) Great comprehensive list you have here. All things I've done thank goodness, although I really need to work on my titles!! Thanks for the reminder. :-) Thanks for sharing.
  3. Jason says:
    i'm not really that good with twitter or going entirely social. not sure if it really isn't for me though i'm sure that i need to be good at it. so thanks for giving this twitter tips, i have fully internalized each point and hope all goes well :) thanks dave. regards, jason
  4. Dennis Edell says:
    Excellent tips; all useful for me. I recently rejoined twitter after deleting account last year. Right now I sit at 694 tweets. The thing is, all but a handful are retweets of other articles. While its greatly appreciated by other bloggers, it's not so good for me. I really need to start thinking of personal tweets.....I also need to learn more about hash-tags; they still confuse me a bit.
  5. Sourav says:
    Great points. Recently I have tried to be very active on Twitter, and I try to follow some of the points that you have mentioned. Managing the timeline without "polluting" is very important and is a tough job too. And instead of tweeting about "business" all the time, I try to include some light matters from time to time.
  6. Dave Lucas says:
    Thanks for the feedback everyone! FamousBloggers makes me feel all warm & fuzzy (LOL!) Seriously, I raelly enjoy this site and all of the wonderful aricles!
    • Hesham says:
      Thank you Dave for the insights! and the good post... and also the nice words! FamousBloggers is a happy place for bloggers :)
  7. Kristi Hines says:
    If you are worried about missing followers with an important tweet, but don't want to over-pollute your timeline with the exact same tweet, you can always change the title and tweet it at different times during the day. This way you have a better shot at catching everyone!
  8. Joe Boyle says:
    I love that you included don't pollute. You need to make sure you aren't becoming a spammer, trying to build a following because you simply will LOSE your followers. Hell, you'll lose anyone who might possible follow you because everyone needs to get the news they want, so you flooding them will be a waste of time. Great post! :D
  9. Asad says:
    Very nice tips. I usually use twitter search to get followers related to my niche and i noticed that timing of tweets is also very important because the time should be such when more people are awake.
  10. Dev says:
    Hey Dave, These are some nice tips. I think i'm already following all this tips. Anyways, Thanks for the reminder man. Thanks for this great tips. Great work. ~Dev
  11. Kimi says:
    Since i don't want to sell anything to anyone, i quit using twitter, just lazy lol.. I can't remember last time when i tweet, may be three weeks ago or so..i quitted because i rarely got traffic from twitter. But these tips above is very useful for those who can use twitter as a marketing promotion, i know some people out there are sucessfull because of twitter.
  12. Des says:
    Excellent article Dave, and very nicely timed for a Twitter newbie like myself! Slowly getting to grips with it, but already I'm getting slightly hacked off with people endlessly posting useless drivel. I'll certainly take note of your tips here.
  13. vipin says:
    i still haven't got many followers but will try these tips for sure. One thing i learned from this post is not to put unnecessary links as a tweet. i often put everything like articles i read, site i visit and more so i think it's not the right way. Thanks for sharing these tips.
  14. Shiva says:
    A set of some Tweetilicious and amazing advices. Thanks Dave. I follow most of the rules you mentioned here but One of the most important rule that I was missing out was timing my tweet. I think I will have to chalk out a Tweet Routine since I have seen and learnt as you have said that there are certain time frame when tweeting is optimal. Hope for a better Tweetevolution from my side
  15. Tony Hastings says:
    So much to think about, timing, who and when to RT, hashtags, am I just tweeting a load of rubbish? I have been part of Twitter for about 6 months now and I think the mists of confusion are beginning to part. In my own experience I have found that one of the most important things to do is to interact with other users as an individual and get involved with what is going on, you only get back what you are prepared to put in! Many thanks for an interesting article Dave, you have helped the mist to clear a little more :-) Tony
  16. Colleen says:
    I suck at tweeting Dave. I think its my industry. Folks simply do not want to hear about my niche, nor any other type sales niche. Sure, I can tweet for personal reasons, but with a family and all, where's the time?
  17. James Pruitt says:
    Great post and I totally agree with the amount of polution on Twitter. I have gotten to where I rarely use it anymore, it is so bad. I figure 80% of my followers are just bots who followed me to get me to follow them. I have tried engaging people in a conversation several times, and never get a response. For me, I see no benefit to tweeting, other than the search bots love it, and will get my articles indexed fast. Usually I tweet articles and blog posts that i like, but I dont use it for driving traffic. I have found it pretty much useless for that because of all the spammers that have taken it over.
  18. Jakes says:
    Hi Dave, Great tips..Twitter is a platform for interaction and that's why all the afore-mentioned tips come in handy. Often, people tweet a lot to get more followers and this in-turn result in pollution of tweets (with lot of hashtags). Then, there is the twitter addiction. I am a twitter addict myself and there have been times I would be tweeting and tweeting. By the time, I realize this I have crossed the limit, the number of tweets for that day would have crossed 100. So I need to improve on that regard. :(
  19. Mars Dorian says:
    Some really juicy tips here, I like it, Dave. Some people totally pollute - tweeting like 3-4 times a minute (or so it seems). Man, you have to have a limit for everything ! The idea with leaving enough space for your retweets is really awe-some. I have never thought of that !
  20. Nabeel says:
    Awesome tips on Twitter Dave. "TWEET, don’t POLLUTE!" I too see so many people doing this. And I do not like it one bit. It totally destroys your credibility. "I try whenever possible to use the Bit.ly, as it tracks click-throughs for the specific links you share on the platform." I did not know why people use url shorteners, instead of the normal links, so thanks for pointing this out. Nabeel
  21. element321 says:
    Great tips. I always try and follow these rules. As for timing, I try and keep my most important Tweets, such as marketing myself or my clients during the central and east cast time zones. Then I retweet some these post around midnight - 3am times to reach my followers that up at those hours. This timing seems to be the best for my Tweets.